Thursday, June 25, 2015

First World War in Africa

Kamerun-Kompanie in Deutsch-Südwestafrika.

The First World War broke out in Europe in
1914, which brought Britain, France, and Russia into open conflict with Germany
and Austria-Hungary until 1918. Still in the early years of European rule,
African countries were drawn into the war by their colonial masters, who
required African resources of men, money, and raw materials. The struggle
between the European powers over control in Africa was also one of the causes
of the war, with rivalry over African possessions complicating longstanding
conflicts in Europe.

Each Allied power took steps to protect its
colonies, strengthening defenses against possible German attack. When victories
over the Germans in their African colonies became certain, these security
measures were relaxed. It then became necessary to ensure the loyalty of
African subjects, if only to prevent them from supporting Germany, and by and
large propaganda was used successfully to this end. Even so, troops had to be
withdrawn from many areas for war service, opening the colonial authorities up
to attack from many quarters. The Ottoman Caliph, for example, had called on
all Muslims to revolt against the colonial powers. To meet these challenges,
the colonial authorities either collaborated with or coerced local chiefs into
serving as agents who would police their own people.

As might be expected, the European armies
were reinforced by Africans, who were recruited to serve as soldiers, porters,
and servants. Various methods of recruitment were used, including conscription.
Many Africans were drawn into war service by the promise of wages and other
benefits from the army, while a greater number were compelled to enlist by
their chiefs – the chiefs having been ordered by the colonial authorities to
supply men for the colonial armies. It soon became clear that the existing
colonial armies were grossly inadequate, and the colonial powers resorted to
draconian measures in conscripting Africans. The French recruited about 40,000
men from Madagascar, 270,000 from North Africa, and 211,000 from their
equatorial and west African colonies. In East Africa the British likewise
enlisted large numbers of Africans, including almost a million porters, as well
as 30,000 troops and twice as many service personnel from West Africa alone.
The German, Belgian, and Portuguese colonial authorities also conscripted tens
of thousands of Africans.

Resistance to conscription became integral
to the early history of African nationalism. Thousands went into hiding or
relocated to avoid service. In many parts of French West Africa, where large
numbers of people had crossed to British territories, resistance took the form
of armed protest. There was a major call for jihad in the Niger and from the
Tuareg in the Sahara. In areas where colonial control was still weak, as in the
hinterlands of French West Africa, Libya, Mauritania, and Morocco, Africans
were able to use the diversion created by the war as an opportunity for further
anti-colonial resistance struggles. For a short time, the French lost power in
a number of areas. Although fewer in number, there were also protests in
British colonies, including unrest in northern Ghana, and rebellion among the
Kwale Igbo in Nigeria. These resistance movements were not necessarily reacting
to the war itself, but rather to the introduction of new or higher taxes and
the imposition of new administrative systems.

The colonial governments embarked upon
measures to obtain the loyalty of Africans, especially the chiefs who were
needed for the successful recruitment or conscription of their people. The
French paid some chiefs to recruit young men, and forced others to send their
subjects into the army. Propaganda in support of the war effort was intense,
and many among the African elite were convinced that the British and French
were pursuing a just war against the Germans. African loyalty to and
cooperation with the colonial powers, especially rulers and other members of
the elite, was based on a number of factors. Where European powers had avoided
excessively repressive rule, and indigenous chiefs been allowed to exercise power
and even draw wages from the government, the war was not used as a rallying
point for protests. This was the case, for example, with the British in
Nigeria.

Africans saw service in different places,
but the majority remained in Africa to confront the Germans in the colonies of
Tanganyika, Kamerun, Namibia, and Togo. Africans who did not see active
military service were also mobilized, but for war production of both
established export crops and foodstuffs.

Africa was affected by the war in many
spheres: military, political, economic, and social. The results were not the
same everywhere. In areas where there had been actual fighting, notably in the
German colonies, the people suffered greatly. In the French colonies, where the
burden of conscription had been heavy, there were anti-colonial protests and
widespread resentment. Indeed, in many areas the colonial authorities’ hold on
power was weakened: their military were redirected to the war effort; markets
and trade routes were disrupted; and the economic recession and growing
unemployment that followed the war generated their own tensions.

Military recruitment had temporarily
strengthened existing colonial armies, but many of the newly recruited troops
perished. The actual number of casualties will never be known exactly, but it
was undoubtedly large: of those recruited by the French almost 200,000 lost
their lives, while nearly 100,000 lost their lives in the British campaign in
East Africa. For the soldiers who survived the war, the experience broadened
their view of both African affairs and world politics. They understood the
causes of the war and the nature of imperialism, and could begin to consider
the impact of colonialism on their own countries. Many acquired practical
skills and a degree of technical education that they were able to put to good
use after the war. For many the experience of Europeans in combat that they
acquired during the war comprehensively undermined notions of white
superiority.

Germany lost its African colonies, which
were shared out as ‘‘mandated territories’’ by the newly created League of
Nations. The Belgians took over Ruanda-Urundi, South Africa received Namibia,
the British obtained Tanganyika and northern Cameroon (added to their Nigerian
colony), the French took the rest of Cameroon, and the British and French
divided Togo. The expectation was that the European powers would serve only as
guardians; in practice, this meant little or nothing to the African population,
who were still treated as colonial subjects. When the League of Nations was
dissolved in 1940, the status of these mandated territories was left unclear.
The expectation that these ‘‘guardians’’ would prepare the countries for
self-government was largely ignored.

There were other notable changes to the
pattern of colonial rule. In January 1914, for example, the British
Protectorates of Southern and Northern Nigeria were amalgamated. In 1917 a
large part of western Egypt was transferred to Italian Libya, and was then
administered as three units (Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzān). The triangle of land to the northwest of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
was transferred to Italy, also in 1917. In 1920 the French created the colony
of Upper Volta from parts of the Niger, Sudan, and Côte d’Ivoire. Upper Volta was subsequently divided in 1932. Thus the
modern map of Africa began to acquire its current shape.

Labels

About Me

Mitch Williamson is a technical writer with an
interest in military and naval affairs. He has published articles in
Cross & Cockade International and Wartime magazines. He was
research associate for the Bio-history Cross in the Sky, a book about
Charles 'Moth' Eaton's career, in collaboration with the flier's son,
Dr Charles S. Eaton. He also assisted in picture research for John
Burton's Fortnight of Infamy.
Mitch is now publishing on the WWW various specialist websites combined
with custom website design work.